Baal watches Spectacular Spider-Man and reviews each episode

So yeah, since the first season is on Netflix I decided to go ahead and rewatch the series for the 8th time and this time actually review the episodes.

Episode 1: Survival of the Fittest

Villain(s): The Vulture, The Enforcers (Montana, Fancy Dan and Ox), Norman Osborn (Non-Active Villain)
Cameo(s): Alex O' Hirn (Rhino in the near future), Flint Marko (Sandman in the near future), Eddie Brock (Venom in the near future), Stan Carter (Sin-Eater in the near future), Jean DeWolff, Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus in the near future), Curt Connors (The Lizard in the near future), Martha Connors, Hammerhead, Tombstone

Summer is over for Peter Parker and school's ready to start — both literally (it's his junior year of high school), and in the real world of crime-fighting — as Spider-Man faces his first real challenge, the Enforcers, and his first real super-villain, Vulture.

+This episode not only shows off the villain of the episode but shows several other villain cameos to allude to their inevitable futures. All with the exception of O' Hirn (Who is an original character for this cartoon) were villains that the comic book fans would recognize and some people who watched the cartoons in general.
+The voice acting is so good. Robert Englund sells Vulture off as a crazy old man who's at the end of his rope so damn well. Josh Keaton can do serious and snippy Spidey with frequent grace and make it sound natural.
+The redesigns of the characters give them a fresh new look but make them recognizable too in their own way. For instance, look at Eddie's design and compare it to his past ones. You know this is Eddie Brock solely based on two things, he's fucking huge and his blond hair that sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the cast despite not looking or sounding like the 30-40 year old he's usually portrayed as.
+Vulture's new outfit looks good, it doesn't look nearly as stupid as it did in the comics or in some of the cartoons he's been in but it still looks a bit silly in all honesty.
+I enjoy the theme song very much as it's catchy as hell.
-For as much as I praise the new designs, sometimes the models look a bit off and the fact that characters seem to have no iris in their eyes sometimes really bug me.
-As thoughtful as the cameos are, it's a really big clusterfuck sometimes trying to look at them and absorb all of these villains at once.
-The High School scenes are really either used for random drama or comedy, they play a bigger part later but they're really more of a side story in Peter's life to add more drama. I know the comics did this too but it still is really annoying and breaks flow badly.

Overall: Very good episode to start the series with even with the clusterfuck of villains in it.

Episode 2: Interactions

Villain(s): Electro, The Lizard (The beginnings of it)
Cameo(s):

Peter Parker attempts to tutor the popular Liz Allan while Spider-Man tries to stop Electro, who will stop at nothing to find a cure for the accident that made him who he is.

+Crispin Freeman as Electro is amazing. He emotes rage, pain and sorrow so well for this character it's fucking criminal.
+Electro's design for this show is fantastic, he actually looks like he can be taken seriously in this getup compared to the other two designs he's had.
+The "Itsy Bitsy Spider" ringtone for Peter is great.
+This show really sells Electro well as a sympathetic character compared to how he is in the comics where he's just some criminal with electric powers, it adds some depth to the character and makes him somewhat tragic.
+This episode starts off the creation of the Lizard.
+Eddie Brock: Total Badass
+Peter uses an insulated glove to try and do harm to Electro and it actually works until Electro uses a radio tower as a giant conductor.
+The beginnings of Liz Allen as a character. Yay, I can enjoy the High School stuff even though it just adds more drama.
-It's kind of lame how Electro decides his name is Electro because Spidey decides to just call him silly names and that one sticks.
-"Sludge", Eddie? Really?
-Stan Carter is a damned idiot. What police officer seriously tries to threaten the guy with electric powers?

Overall: Great episode, Electro became one of my favorite villains with this episode and it makes him sympathetic too. The episode ends on a good stinger to Lizard's episode.

Lightning Butt?

Fran Drescher wrote:

I love this cartoon
He could twist his body like that when he was trapped, but couldn't escape?

You get bored of doing reviews after two episodes?  
 
Anyway, I'm now catching up on this, and enjoying it hugely.  I've just started Season Two, and it's been a terrific take on Spider-Man's formative years; Spidey's still got a quip for every situation, and Peter's so clueless about life outside the suit, he's utterly endearing.  The art style is fantastic, and the voice acting is stellar, so hopefully it won't date as badly as the 1990s animated series (which is still pretty awesome in its own right). What a shame it never got picked up for a third season.

I can't imagine it dating poorly. Especially since its successor is so awful.

Kaio wrote:

I can't imagine it dating poorly. Especially since its successor is so awful.

Oh yeah, SSM has not aged at all. Most of its humor lies in the situation, rather than any time frame it's in. About the most I can think of is like, a few jokes that reference like aloe vera or something. Everything is very much standard Spider-Man stuff that you would find in basically any other cartoon from the past 30 years, but done better with a more consistent storyline.

Also I forgot how many garbage threads I made where I said I'd do a thing, oh man I had too much free time to say random bullshit.

The only thing I can think of that would warrant some eye-rolling is 'bro.'

To be fair that's been a thing since like forever, it wasn't until like 2010 or something it became a different kind of thing.

It was cheesy back then too.

It was, but in a surfer dude way.

Pete and Eddie wish they were surfer dudes.

Just finished Season two, and it's a huge shame they never did a third. Great show.

Kaio wrote:

I can't imagine it dating poorly. Especially since its successor is so awful.

I find Ultimate Spider-Man to be more on the mediocre side.
4th wall breaking is mostly awful, I laugh at bits of it though.

SimianWonder wrote:

Just finished Season two, and it's a huge shame they never did a third.  Great show.

Agreed, I wanted to see this to the end of what they had planned, this is easily the best Spider-Man show, and had it gone more it could have stood on equal footing with Batman: The Animated Series.
If there is one possible positive I can think of for this show ending is we got Young Justice, but that also got canned too soon.

A couple of changes made for this show seemed weird at the time, one of them I like more than the other.
Making Felicia's dad the guy who killed Ben is a neat idea, I wanted to see more of that.
Silver Sable as Silvermane's daughter.... I like the comic version of Silver Sable more, what they did works for this story, but I prefer the original story of Sable. Sandman as one of her allies is cool.

I recently started rewatching the 90's series, I used to love it as a kid and it still holds up, is this better?

I don't know if it's better as it has been such a long time since I've seen the '90s series. It is very bloody good though. I can't see you not enjoying it if you like Spiderman.

It's miles better.

But '90s Spidey will always have this.

That is delightfully hammy.

guess I'll have to check it out then.

Skipio wrote:

That is delightfully hammy.

It also had this.